Almost 19 months have passed since Intelligence analyst Bradley Manning has been arrested in Iraq for allegedly leaking hundreds of thousands classified documents to whistleblowing site WikiLeaks. Detention has been harsh, «inhumane» until transfer from Quantico to Fort Leavenworth. More than 500 days without a trial. Until dec. 16, when an article 32 hearing took place at Fort Meade, Maryland.

Manning’s attorney, David Coombs, called for the recusation of the Army’s investigating officer at the evidentiary hearing. As the New York Times reports,

«Lt. Col. Paul Almanza, the investigating officer who works as a Justice Department prosecutor in civilian life, was preventing the defense from calling witnesses to show that little harm was done by the disclosure of hundreds of thousands of confidential documents provided to WikiLeaks, the antisecrecy organization.»

«“All this stuff has been leaked,” Mr. Coombs said. “A year and a half later, where’s the danger? Where’s the harm?”».

But the investigating officer refused to recuse himself and the hearing continued:

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Judge at #BradleyManning hearing has REJECTED defence request that he recuse himself on grounds of bias. Case will continue

Manning is facing the risk of life imprisonment. Alexa O’Brien (@carwinb) and Kim Zetter (@kimzetter) wrote on Twitter what has happened inside the courtroom, describing the situation in details. Several restrictions were in place:

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Today, I felt like a witness to history. What an honor and privilege. #Manning

The hearing sparked many reactions and comments. To Pj Crawley, the former US Assistant Secretary of State who resigned after saying that Manning was being «mistreated» by the DoD, this is a «vital prosecution»:

John Gerstein, on Politico, notes that Manning’s case amounts to «a legal black hole». And makes many other interesting remarks on the lack of transparency of US authorities, who refused to give the full set of filings from the Army to Politico after the news organisation filed a request under the Freedom of Information Act:

The same thinks famous whistleblower Daniel Ellsberg, who leaked the Pentagon Papers published in 1971. Ellsberg has been interviewed by Democracy Now to update on a rally in support of Manning outside the base where the hearing took place: